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Monday, October 28, 2013

A new study by the New America Foundation has found that United States fixed and wireless urban broadband customers pay significantly more for less bandwidth than their overseas counterparts. The report compared fixed and wireless broadband pricing in most of the largest United States cities to international cities such as London, Berlin, Bucharest and Zurich.

Though the United States is ranked near the bottom on price in most categories (with little to no movement year to year), the comparisons are particularly stark when it comes to triple play pricing, with no United States city even in the rankings until Bristol, Virginia shows up at 32.

"....In larger US cities, we continue to observe higher prices for slower speeds," notes the study. "In the US for example, the best deal for a 150Mbps home broadband connection from cable and phone companies is $130/month, offered by Verizon FiOS in limited parts of New York City. By contrast, the international cities we surveyed offer comparable speeds for $77 or less per month, with most coming in at about $50/month."

Things don't get much prettier when it comes to wireless pricing, notes the report.

"When it comes to mobile broadband, the cheapest price for around 2GB of data in the US ($30/month from T-Mobile) is twice as much as what users in London pay ($15/month from T-Mobile). It costs more to purchase 2GB of data in a US city than it does in any of the cities surveyed in Europe."

The report's solution shouldn't be surprising if you've been paying attention (or if you recall Google is a major funder).

"Rather than allowing American cities to fall behind, policymakers should reassess current policy approaches and implement strategies to increase competition, in turn fostering faster speeds and more affordable access."